Monday, 6 August 2012

‘Who gains from immigrants being unable to speak Swedish?

A report suggesting a two-year limit to the Swedish for immigrants language programme, (SFI), has got journalist Kajsa Ekis Ekman pondering the potential consequences of this move and just who benefits from new arrivals to Sweden not learning the language.

How
much Swedish does the working class need to be able to speak? Enough to
manage a menial job, it would seem. Anything above this – to write, to
understand the news, or to be active in clubs and associations, are
unnecessary luxuries that they should do if they find the time.

These opinions are not those of a prejudiced 19th century English lord
but are voiced in the government’s recent investigation into SFI, Svenska för invandrare, or Swedish for Immigrants.

The report is called ”Tid för snabb och flexibel inlärning” or ”Time for
fast and flexible learning” and its purpose is to limit Swedish courses
for immigrants.

According to the report, it simply “takes too long” for many to learn
Swedish and this is both costly and inefficient. Hence a tightening of
the rules is forthcoming.

The aim of the investigation was never to find out if, but how,
the SFI-course could be shortened. And after the initial clichés about
integration and computers, the main issue is finally brought up: “How
much Swedish does one need to know to be ready for the labour market?”

Two years, is what they have come up with. Two years of Swedish language
classes will suffice. For everyone. All those that arrive in Sweden
will from now on be expected to start learning the language during their
first year and will only have two years to achieve proficiency.

This goes for love-refugee academics as well as for war-weary illiterates with several children.

Of course the government knows that not everyone can learn Swedish in
two years. The report comes to the conclusion that this is, in fact,
fairly impossible.

Out of those with the worst prerequisites only 8 percent manage to
complete the course in 2 years. But what the report says is that this
does not matter.

Because those who can't read or write “should be able to gain employment
within a sector where only limited knowledge of Swedish is required”.
In other words: to do the dishes you don’t need to be able to spell
democracy.

The report dismisses the argument that those who are suffering from
post-traumatic stress syndrome might need a little longer to complete
the course, saying that taking this into consideration would be to risk
“cementing too low an ambition level”.

Regarding women with new-born babies who haven’t the time to start their
Swedish education in the first year in the country and therefore fall
outside of the system, the report concludes that “the starting point
should be to assume that both parents should share the parental leave”.

Reading this, one is dumbfounded. While Swedish fathers don’t have to
stay home for more than two months, new arrivals should then be required
to split parental leave from their very first moments in Sweden?

While the Swedish media has remained silent, the whole SFI-world is in
uproar since the report was published last year. Twelve principals and
professors write that the report’s proposals “can’t be characterized as
reasoned suggestions based on research and experience,” and that there
is no research to support the suggestion that a two year limit would
benefit anyone.

SFI teachers I speak to are worried - will their students be thrown off the course?

Will they be referred to adult education classes where the teachers have
neither the competency nor the resources to cater for their needs, or
the unemployment agency, where they will be taught to seek employment
next to unemployed Swedish economists?

What this will mean is that the majority of those who come to Sweden in the future will not learn to speak Swedish properly.

Ponder for a moment what consequences this will have on society.

A large group of people will not have reached the language level
necessary to read a contract, or to understand information regarding
union rights, new laws or what is written in Swedish newspapers.

What will happen to them? Some will be unemployed. Some will be taken
advantage of cash-in-hand jobs, tricked by compatriots who have started
recruitment agencies and say that thirty kronor an hour ($4.4) is a
normal wage, and that if they complain they can leave. Some will manage
to get ahead anyway, despite a steep uphill struggle.

I keep thinking: who on earth would want people who come here not to learn Swedish?

Of course not those that have just arrived, and not those who already
live here either, for what kind of society do we get if people can
hardly speak to each other? I can’t even imagine that racists like this,
seeing as they are always complaining that immigrants don’t learn
enough Swedish.

However, for those who wish to have an easily manipulated lower class, the proposal is worth its weight in gold.